Jordanian Actor's Props Raise Suspicion at Rome Airport
AMMAN, Nov 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Italian airport officials detained and questionned a Jordanian actor for several hours after they found two fake guns in his luggage when he flew into Rome from Tunis, where he attended a theater festival, a Jordanian daily reported Tuesday.
Fathi Aref Abdullah told the Jordan Times that he was handcuffed and his left foot tied to a chair for two hours before the questioning started at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport on October 28, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"On the way back to Amman via Rome, I asked the Tunisian airport officials if there would be any problems in carrying the metal sound gun in my luggage and they said no," Abdullah said.
"But I was handcuffed by Italian security men after arriving at the airport and driven to another building where I was put in a tiny room that was equipped with four cameras, one in each corner. I could not move as my left foot was tied to the chair. I was kept like that for two hours until the interrogation began," he explained.
Abdullah said he was asked whether he had been trained to use weapons and if he had ever visited Afghanistan or had the address of Osama bin Laden, accused by the Bush administration of being the prime suspect in the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Abdullah told investigators he knew nothing of weapons, had never been to Afghanistan and has no links with bin Laden.
Abdullah added that it was only when he was asked "odd questions" that he asked for a lawyer to help him out.
The Italian authorities released him later and apologized for the "misunderstanding", he said.
"I didn't expect this to happen at all," Abdullah told the Jordan Times, adding that he encountered no problems while carrying the two fake guns - a plastic one and a metal one used for sound effects - and the other props when he traveled to Tunisia via Syria and Athens.
Airports worldwide have stepped up security in the aftermath of the deadly September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, with stringent rules implemented on what can and cannot be carried on one's luggage.
